92 ANNUAL KEPOKTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTTTEE. 



tion has not heretofore been available, and it will serve as a guide 

 in the development of the type of sheep suited to the range country. 



In March, 1915, the crossbred ewes dropped their first crop of 

 lambs. The crossbred flock contains ewes sired by Lincoln, Leicester, 

 Cotswold, and Romney Marsh rams. The yield of lambs was an 

 excellent one. On the basis of carcass weight, mutton conformation, 

 and yield of wool, the Lincoln cross ranks first and the Cotswold 

 second, while the Leicester and Romney Marsh produce the finest 

 quality of wool, but are below the others in weight of fleece and in 

 mutton points. 



The flock at Laramie numbers 500 breeding ewes. 



COKEIEDALE SHEEP. 



Under the terms of an appropriation " for the importation of Cor- 

 riedale and other promising breeds of sheep for breeding purposes," 

 65 Corriedale ewes and 10 rams were imported from New Zealand 

 and are being kept in Wyoming. These sheep represent a fixed and 

 true breeding type of sheep quite similar to those now bred in the 

 Western States, but which are not a fixed type and are produced only 

 by the use of two pure parent stocks. Considerable interest has been 

 manifested in the bureau's test of the adaptability of this breed to our 

 Western State conditions. 



EXPERIMENTS AT BELTSVILLE. 



Attention is being given at the Beltsville farm to the keeping of 

 sheep upon forage crops, as it seems certain that the f arrn sheep in- 

 dustry of the future must be based largely upon rotation forage 

 crops. This plan insures economy of production by reducing to a 

 minimum the area of land required and the labor costs of harvesting 

 feeds. A field of 30 acres has been divided into parts of from 1 to 5 

 acres each for seeding to fall grains for pasture and to peas, oats, 

 rape, etc., for later forage. The aim is to increase the number of 

 sheep reared upon this land to the m.aximum number consistent with 

 regular farm practice. 



All the animals used in- the experiments in the production of Persian 

 lamb fur, as well as those used in breeding an early lambing type 

 of mutton sheep, were lost in a fire that destroyed the sheep barn at 

 Beltsville on March 31. These two projects have therefore been 

 abandoned for the present. The results of our four years of experi- 

 ments with the Karakule sheep used in the first-named project have 

 been prepared for publication. Most of the ewes bred to Karalmle 

 rams were of Barbados breeding. None of the skins from lambs of 

 the first cross were of commercial value for fur, but half-bred ewes 

 bred to Karakule rams had produced lambs with skins sufficiently 

 good to make it appear that continued crossing for a higher propor- 

 tion of Karakule blood would show that the production of Persian 

 lamb fur in the United States might be made practical and profit- 

 able. Of the limited number of lambs secured by mating Karakule 

 rams to Border Leicester, Cotswold, Cheviot, and Merino ewes none 

 had valuable skins, though one lamb sired by a Karakule ram and 

 out of a first-cross Karakule Cotswold ewe yielded a skin worth $4. 



